Bordello Asset Showcase (Patreon)

Since one of the focuses for this next Bordello animation is the visuals, I spent a lot of time in pre-production developing assets.  These range from environments to wardrobe to characters and I thought I'd just make a post to show some of them off.

Environment:

This particular short is set in a different bordello, so I had to design a new environment, 'Rose's Petals', from the ground up.  In the future this is something I'd like to hire out for, but I like to develop a decent understanding of processes before I do something like that.  In my opinion, it just helps you manage things and helps you assess someone's capabilities.

The script calls for two sets in this establishment: the atrium and Rose's room/office.  I had imagined this building as a sort of sanctuary garden in the middle of the city; something which in many ways stands in contrast to the bordello we're used to.  Since the script eludes to this place being strictly run underneath its pleasant facade, I needed to come up with a design that communicated that.

I settled on a design that contrasts the free and organic nature of the plant life with very regimented, almost prison-like lines.  It's a little bare of props right now but I prefer to keep things rather empty in the beginning and then fill out the background according to what shots I'm using.  I haven't done much outdoors environmental design, so this is a nice way of dipping my toes into that as well.

With the office I just wanted to communicate what Rose was all about, like her focus on work and vanity.  There are a couple important props mentioned in the script but other than that it was pretty free-form.  I white-boxed everything which helped develop the flow/broad-strokes of the room, but I still struggle with detail.  Much time was spent modeling stuff that I probably shouldn't have, like potion bottles, quilts or shelves.

It's something I'd like to get better at, but if I could find an environmental artist who's way better than me to do stuff like that then that'd be fine too.  Ideally I could just send someone a mock-up or diagram and have them figure everything else out.  I have to keep my eye out for opportunities like these that can lighten the load.

Clothing:

I've been relying on some pre-existing assets for clothing for quite some time.  They're rather hard to work with and especially difficult to simulate.  So I set out with a team to create a lot of more efficient, higher quality, simulation-ready assets that I could work with instead.  I have an interest in medieval fashion, so it was kind of fun.

Here are a few:

So we set out to retopo, paint, and rig a collection of tops, skirts, and dresses.  I don't need that many for this particular animation, but it's a library I can build up and use over time.  For example, Darcey is making a guest appearance in this animation and since she's essentially out-and-about with Calarel, it doesn't make sense for her to be wearing a raggedy corset.  I could get away with it, but as I mentioned before I'm placing an importance on the visuals.  Thus, she gets her own custom dress.

This is another thing I would be perfectly happy with hiring out for in the future, but for now I'm just developing my understanding of the pipeline.

Characters:

Because of the modular system we built out for the models, it's incredibly easy to make extras.  However the script calls for some featured extras, including one with speaking lines, so I wanted to make them unique.  Even though they're only on screen for a few seconds, they can help expand the world.  Plus I can use them in other things too.

Here are two notable ones:

The gnome was fairly straight-forward, but it's still tough making the short races work correctly in motion.  I didn't really have any pre-existing options for Goliaths, so I had to build a bunch myself, including the tattoos.  I'd like to create more races in the future, like Tritons or Dryads, but that might be a little time-consuming for now.  I'm pretty sure I could pull those off though.

Conclusion

Anyways, I just wanted to show some behind the scenes stuff I work on during periods of radio silence.  And this doesn't even include the rigging, troubleshooting, testing, research, practice, and so-on.  If I just stuck to animating it would be way easier, but I'm trying to develop a variety of skills here and this is just part of the process.